Mama Said
by Regien
Summary: <html><head></head>An imagining of the life of the Cubone orphaned after Team Rocket killed his Marowak mother in the Pokemon Tower. Please read, reviews are appreciated.</html>


Mama Said

_THUD._

"_Cooperate, you old bastard, or that'll happen to a lot more Pokemon!"_

"_There's no need for this!"_

_THUD._

"_Listen to us, you senile fuck. You WILL work with us, or we'll kill these Pokemon you claim to love so much, but then just sit and watch while we beat them. You want that? DO YOU!"_

"_I'll do it, just stop!"_

_THUD._

"_One more for luck, eh?"_

The small Cubone wept beside the corpse of its mother, beaten to death not even an hour ago by the men in the black uniforms. All he could do was stare from the shadows as she cried out – Her screams of protest were as useless as the child's silent tears. As he sat and cried to himself, a young human came along and made them leave, and rescued Mr. Fuji, but neither of them noticed him. Not even a year ago he was born, and his mother was gone, rushed out from life by what looked to him like pure evil. He was still a baby, and he had just been forced to watch his mother be tortured and die. His tears were a mark of shame. Cubone were never supposed to cry, not even when their mothers died, because that was when they could make their mother proud through battle. One thing commonly said in the world is that Cubone and Marowak are the loneliest Pokemon of all, that the only joy they find comes from battle. For this particular Cubone, this wasn't true. He hated battles, and he had been perfectly happy. Of course, now he had no one. No one to nurture him, no one to protect him. He was lost, and his tears just kept coming, flowing over his mother's body, and the skull she wore as a memento of the solitary nature of their race. They walked with Death all their life – The skulls of their matriarchs was a shell that showcased their toughness, how they could always remain strong until the day they died.

The fact that this orphaned Cubone didn't wear a skull showed how different he was. He couldn't bear himself to remove his grandmother's last skeletal remains from his mother's body, and probably never would. He didn't think he would ever stop crying – Not until the world ended. And when he fell asleep from utter exhaustion and trauma, the tears didn't stop.

Cubone woke lying down in the arms of Mr. Fuji's young female aid. Her arms weren't completely unlike his own mother's, but they felt different somehow. Wrong. It just wasn't right to be held by anyone who wasn't his mother, but then he could never have that again.

Coming to his senses, he realised that there was a skull on his head – Whether it was that of his mother or his grandmother, he couldn't tell. It repulsed him, but wasn't this how it was supposed to be? He raised his stubby arm to feel the helmet, but before he got there, he heard a hollow thud. It was then that he realised that there was a bone in his hand. The woman jumped at the low sound, then realised he was awake. She didn't say anything, but just stroked his stomach. He felt it, but it didn't make him feel any better. It didn't fill in the huge chasm of loneliness left by his mother, and as he thought of her face(Or how much he had ever seen of it), tears swam to the surface of his eyes. He threw the bone to the side, and started trying to pry the skull from his head.

He didn't want this, he didn't want any of it. He didn't want to fight, he didn't want a weapon. He just wanted to be with his mother, the only one he had in his life, that had now been forcibly torn from him. The woman wrapped her arms around him and laid her head on the skull that was completely stuck, and before Cubone could stop himself the floods started. It just reminded him too much of the Marowak that he had loved so much, and he cried as though the world was ending. He blacked out again, and he didn't stop weeping this time either.

The Cubone woke from the dreams of his mother's caring arms, and opened his eyes to see Mr. Fuji staring down at him. As he sat up, the old man breathed a sigh of relief and spoke to him.

"We didn't know if you'd wake up, child." Cubone looked away from him and shook his head. "I know it hurts, but we'll take care of you. I was the one who put your mother's skull on you and gave you one of her bones, by the way." He looked back at Mr. Fuji, shocked at this.

"Cu bone bone!" He cried. _I don't want to fight, I just want my mother back!_

"I know it hurts, my child, but you won't have to be alone again. Battling can get rid of the pain, and that's what Cubone love to do, isn't it?"

"Bone!" _No! I don't like hurting others, you don't understand me at all!_ The Cubone threw his bone away, and shook his head frantically. Mr. Fuji closed his eyes, and sighed.

"I... Lost my mother, too. She was a good woman. I understand what you're going through." He opened his eyes again.

"CU, CU BONE!" _NO, JUST LEAVE ME ALONE! MY MOTHER WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO UNDERSTOOD ME! _The Cubone began to scream in frustration, at the man who couldn't understand. He closed his eyes again, wishing that he could help the poor thing. Cubone tugged at the skull, the pain of it pressing against his neck as he pulled with all his might incomparable to the pain he felt at being truly alone. He pushed and pulled, each of his efforts marked by another pained grunt, then the grunts escalated to yelps and then to screams. His attempts were admirable, his determination to remove the skull that wasn't his. He finally removed the skull, and with a loud pop it flew off his head and rolled around on the floor. With his face exposed, Mr. Fuji could finally see the tears that rolled down the child's face and knew with a sorrowful finality that he could never understand it. The sadness that he felt at knowing that he could not help it meant nothing in the screaming agony that the Pokemon had to endure to remove the skull, and that again was miniscule in the face of the terror and sorrow the Cubone felt at having to face the world alone.

"Her grave is at the top of the Pokemon Tower, child. Do what you have to do." He lowered his head, and stared at the floor. The only sounds that broke the following silence were the tears that fell to the floor from a miserable orphan as he went to see his mother.

_"Leave him be, spirits. He does not deserve your fury."_ This was the voice that confronted the ghosts that were considering terrorising the Cubone as he made his way up the Tower, but they thought better of it once they heard the voice. It was the voice of the motherly phantom, the one that they all respected. She had died an honourable death - Attempting to protect her child from the evil humans that had slaughtered her. They watched the small creature clamber its way up a flight of stairs, shying away from the humans that he passed that were paying their respects to the dead. His naked face was a curiosity to the people who would almost certainly have never seen a Cubone without a skull, but they paid it little more than a glance as he stared at the floor and went on his way. He was small enough to slip through the numerous gravestones, though to him, it felt like the stone slabs of memories would never end as he ascended yet another series of stairs.

"Cu.. Bone?" _Mummy... Why?_ The little Pokemon stared at the grave of his mother, a patch of soil that had been recently upturned. That particular grave had been saved for a special Pokemon, one that represented sacrifice. There had been a prediction in Lavender Town passed down since the conception of the Tower that one would lose their life to protect something very dear to them. Mr. Fuji had reserved the grave at the top of the tower for the person – or Pokemon described in the prophecy, being the superstitious person that he was. Her death was so recent that they still hadn't been able to erect a tombstone for her.

"_The human race is vile, son. All of them, regardless of what they say. The only one that isn't is the kind man, Sir Fuji."_ The Cubone raised his head from staring intently at the dirt floor, hydrating the soil with his tears, but was so miserable that hearing her voice couldn't even make him jump. He simply refocused his gaze at the bottom of his mother's resting place, and spoke up.

"Bone, bone... Cu..." _Mum... I can't take it... I can't be what you wanted me to be... I'm sorry..._ The child dropped to his knees as his silent tears flowed faster, and his mother watched on, unable to touch or comfort him. The helplessness ripped through both of them like wildfire, but there was nothing they could do to get to each other.

"_You are my pride and joy, my son. I could never stop loving you even if I tried. No matter what you do, you'll always make me proud."_ Rather than comfort her son, it had a bad effect on him, as instead of remaining silent he began to heave loudly, sobbing in little hiccups that accompanied the dull splashes of his tears hitting the ground. She would have loved nothing more than to hold him, but she could no longer protect him from the world – She had moved on from that world now, and he'd need to do some moving on himself if he wanted to survive. Sadly, he was just a child, and though she knew it would be a longshot, she began to devise a plan. Whilst his sobs rose to a loud, despair-filled weeping, she conversed with the other phantoms in the tower, all of them hanging on her every word. They had saw and admired her in her death and afterlife, and were willing to do everything they could to help her son, more than likely remembering their own lives and the family they had in the past. As the tiny child picked himself up and walked away, misery hanging over him like an evil spirit, the ghosts prepared to enact their plan to give him a new life.


End file.
